Omni 10.5 thoughts and pics

[Tom Smit]

Sorry for the pic quality. A pair of Omni 10.5s (S2010) on a refabbed cart so that it can roll behind the screens when not in use.

Home-made platform for O10.5. 1 3/4" x 3" (?) pipe nipple into a pipe flange. Always used with a load strap.

Platform on speaker stand

The room where the rig normally resides (just under the front organ choir pipes)

Well, I"ve had them built and used for over a year now and I like them. I used them for small PA several times, and bass guitar.
Here are some notes...........Had the 10.5s on a powered mixer amp and worked the EQ, etc for a good sound at a reasonable volume (ie, could hear myself while humming or singing) as PA for keyboard use. The amount of “throw” was incredible relatively speaking. The breath ‘puffs’ on the ‘piccolo’ voice could be heard 50-60 ft back............Had both 10.5’s stacked on a speaker stand and fed by a channel of a 1000w/ch Peavey amp. The top of the cab was about 42" from the ceiling, 60" from the floor and 96" from the wall. I was scared to run it but every thing turned out OK. Put vox, guitar, and bass through it. EQ was: cut-off below 40 hz, …40, 50, [flat]…63 [2db boost]… 80, 100, 125 [8db boost]…200 [8 db cut]…250 [6 db cut]…1.25k [6 db cut]…flat to 20k. (IIRC). What I noticed the most was the clarity of the vocals,never heard such clean vocals! The bass was adequate, guitar was nice. All of this had to keep up with an exuberant drummer. A few other people said that the Omni’s were clearer. When there was a speaker, I wondered if I actually had turned him up because it sounded so much like him!................Used as PA outdoors. Piano voice on keyboard had nice, clear deep bass notes. Vocals and speaker were clear as well............Used one O10.5 on a stand at the front wall, along with the AT that was faced into the corner. Most of the keyboard voices sounded good except for the piano voice which had too much in the 200 hz range. I had the 63hz boosted by~3db, 130?pulled by 2?db, 200? Pulled by 4?db, 400 pulled by 2?db, flat for the rest (Yorkville powered mixer at 150 watts @ 4 ohms). Both channel and volume knobs were at half, but the keyboard was turned down to half as well. The AT (20?mh inductor) really anchored the bass nicely. In a 75’W x 120’D x20’H room. Not looking for max volume in this scenario, but the sound was really nice! Some people thought there was a CD playing........... had both cabs hooked up on one side of a PV900 amp with a bass playing. He had the DDT circuit engaging frequently but it sounded sweet in a 50 feet D x 75 feet W room against two electric guitars, an acoustic guitar, piano, and acoustic drums. (war volume finally!)..........

Yesterday I was in the sanctuary trying the cabs as single or double on the stand. Also, tried them(full-range) with an AT (through a 20?mh inductor) which I felt really anchored the bottom end nicely. I plugged the cabs into the monitor amp, which I had plugged into the FOH with the all other cabs disconnected. The mixer has "high", "low", and sweep-able mids from 300 to 4k hz. What I found during my 2 hour trial is that I had to cut between 6-9 db at 400hz to get a sound that I liked. Why is that? If it was not cut, it sounded too much like "hollow"? which bothers me. I dunno. Any ideas? Thanks.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

What I found during my 2 hour trial is that I had to cut between 6-9 db at 400hz to get a sound that I liked. .

That's where the cab has high sensitivity, and the room acoustics might also accentuate that region.

[Tom Smit]

Thanks Bill.
These cabs only have the 4 ohm resister in them, so I was wondering if the piezo filter would help. Second, do I have enough foam and stuffing since the stuffing is lightly packed from the baffle and forward, and the back and sides are covered with foam topping leaving a fairly open area inside the box?

[Tom Smit]

I thought I'd add a couple more pics. These are of the first cab before I had any tweeter arrays built and therefore only used it as a bass cab. (it's the table that's warped, not the cab bottom)

This on shows the hot glue which is all that held in the blocking panel. When the tweeter array was ready, I just cut the hot glue, added the flanges and arrays.

[Zack Brock]

Nice cabs and nice sanctuary! Glad to hear a such a positive, glowing review as always.

What woofer driver did you load them with?

[Gregory East]

S2010 aka "Basslites", don't hear much about those ones. Everyone goes for the higher power Deltalites.

Nice review, bodes well for my upcoming build.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Thanks Bill.
These cabs only have the 4 ohm resister in them, so I was wondering if the piezo filter would help.

It will give additional sensitivity and power handling to them. For best results the entire box should be lined with foam or polyester batts.

[Tom Smit]

For best results the entire box should be lined with foam or polyester batts.

Yes, understood. And they are/were, such that all surfaces, except for the baffle, are covered. The empty cab was just to show the temporary panel that was just held in with hot glue.

[Tom Smit]

Thanks, all, for your words.

[Tom Smit]

I just had steve_rolfeca from TB try out the rig shown in the pics in the same location as in the pics, using his own bass. His comments were that while they didn't have enough bottom end as some other cabs might have, he would definitely leave his rig at home to use this one if he were to play in this church. He also mentioned that two cabs were defo better than one, the tweets did not sound nasty at all, there was clarity in the toneand no woofiness, no hanging-on of notes that some cabs exhibit, and that the cabs were quite responsive to EQ. And this was all unsolicited.
For the uninitiated, he plays bass, has owned numerous basses, bass cabs, and bass heads. So going on that, I feel that his comments carry weight.